Firstly, there is wmswitcher in recent l-pups and perhaps others, but it seems a bit limited as-is in current form even though provision is there for future expansion. It can be a bit tricky getting some window managers to work well together and not interfere with each other (but it can be a fun sort of challenge at times to make it so, lots of different approaches).

Not all that much here really, but if you do like to switch around amongst several window managers and have them set up properly after the first time run (a few like openbox may drop you in to a root window with no background, but generally rox provides a pinboard/bg if you have it enabled by default as most standard pups do), plogout can be a useful bit of luxury - typing things at the prompt can get old and doing startup scripts might not be your cup of tea either.

So what to do? There have been other trys at switching, but it wasn't until I saw this in the first Macpup I used that I went "geeeee .. click a button sounds like the hot ticket!" and it worked so well that I looked under the hood a bit and modified this'n'that and here we are.

*** this is not a dotpet ***
(also you bypass official methods entirely at your own risk)

You should have a fair understanding of what happens and why you should check a utility like this.

Some window managers may need their own special logout to save session info if desired so you can start up where you left off (like browser sessions with many tabs open and work in progress, etc). Most window managers are okay if you exit without asking permission first or having to go through a sort of shutdown procedure (which can actually be a bit confusing if all you want to do is move on to another venue or use a different feature set - some days are lazy, other days you can be in the game or whatever). Even the term "log out" may seem a bit ambiguous to some (rather than Exit to Prompt).

Most puppy folk are quite aware of why and how to drop out of the X server (and know the uncomfortable feeling when Ctrl+Alt+backspace doesn't get you to at least a Prompt) or simply to restart X. So those buttons got included. Some wms can 'hot-swap' without restarting X (blackbox, fluxbox, icewm and pekwm that I know of), but that's another deal - plogout does it the 'clean break' way since that's more universal.

Reboot and poweroff are a few other basics (but vital to get right, there's a few different methods of install and some older pups have different paths). Do open plogout up in a text editor or viewer to ensure the paths are correct for your version of Puppy (and edit the plogout file if needed). The starting point for that info is usually in the menu file or template for it.

There's a basic set of what you need in the archive - simply unpack it and put things where they go (I included a simple howto.txt). Check the contents for your particular setup (particularly the paths as stated in the plogout file, whichever one you choose or adapt to your own system - the various 'windowmanager' files in subdirs of nibbac dir should have the basic command for the window managers to start with, but you may need to add a suffix like session or however the actual command reads when you type it in at the Prompt

Code:

xwin <your_window_manager's_load_identification>

a few times I've had to guess when trialing and wanted to get back in to the same wm and wasn't sure there was a fallback, as it turned out lately there were two excellent other wms (well doh me ).

Remember, if you do play around modifying it, the buttons are 'live' once it's in - why the big cancel on the bottom so you don't .. also, that's one reason it's a bit colorful - no mistaking it for anything else.

Some other stuff in the 'plus' archive (use what you need and dump what you don't). I wasn't hip to murgaLua color codes so you can change the jewel tones of the buttons with a little fussing about and the visual aids. Also in there is libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 and symlinks which may come in helpful if your pup is missing those items..

Really nice `foo! And how many times a day have I gotten so tired - whenever coding or working on a theme, whatever - of either having to go to CLI to type "xwin so-and-so" or to "restart X"? Now! A simple taskbar or desktop link and a click can do it all for me with the numerous managers I run!

A VERY useful tool indeed and I'm surprised the downloads without one single comment to date. Whoa...

Thanks again `foo and much appreciated! Keep up the great work as I know the Puppy Community appreciates these tools.

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